I Wrote Over 100 Stories on Medium in 3.5 Months. Here Are The Most Important Things I’ve Learned So Far.
10 of the best, and none of them are “write every day”.
I promised myself I’d celebrate every milestone on Medium.
And what better way to celebrate than by writing an article?
So here it is.
I started writing on Medium towards the end of May. At the time of writing this piece, roughly sixteen weeks have passed. This is my 103rd article.
I’ve learned a lot about Medium as a platform in that time, too much to share in one story. So I’ve condensed it all down into 10 overarching points.
If you want to grow, engage
Like most online platforms, it’s almost impossible to gain more followers without engaging with other users.
If you want to grow, you have to be willing to reach back and be an active member of the community.
On some platforms, that can be an uncomfortable (or just plain boring) experience.
Fortunately, Medium has one of the best, most supportive communities on the interwebs.
If you want to gain more followers and get more eyeballs on your words, spend some time reading, clapping, commenting and following each day.
Don’t use AI
When I first started on Medium, I naively dabbled in AI.
I thought ChatGPT was a quick fix that’d help me churn out oodles of articles, and before long I’d be raking it in (as we say here in Northern Ireland).
Of course, I was wrong.
I haven’t gone anywhere near ChatGPT since early June. It’s useful for a great many things, but creative expression isn’t one of them.
AI is lame.
Headlines are key
While the actual content of your articles on Medium is incredibly important, the headlines that go with those articles are even more so.
You can write the best story Medium’s ever seen, and if your headline’s rubbish, no-one will ever read it.
You need to devote significant time to each of your headlines. I’d even go so far as to say you should spend as much time on your headline as writing the article itself.
Get your headlines right and the rest will fall into place.
Images with people showing emotion perform best
One thing I quickly discovered is that feature images of people displaying emotion perform better than those that don’t.
Generic imagery from Unsplash is like elevator music — you’re barely aware of its existence.
Download more eye-catching images from Canva, and try using those with people in them, displaying human emotion.
Join “the right” publications
Not all publications are created equal.
Just because a Medium publication has a big following doesn’t mean your articles will get much traction with them. It’s easy for your work to get lost in the mix.
In fact, publications with a smaller audience often do better.
Experiment with a few and stick with those that work best for you. It won’t take long for you to separate the wheat from the chaff.
And make sure it’s easy for new readers to stay updated on your upcoming articles.
Earnings are unpredictable at best
My earnings have bounced around considerably during my brief time on Medium.
I had a big spike in August while the new algorithm settled, and it looks as though I’ll be going back to a more meagre amount for this month.
There’s very little point in tracking what you make on Medium. As long as you keep writing regularly and get 1% better each time you hit publish, your earnings will gradually increase.
It’s best to view Medium as one of several revenue streams in a collective rather than a sole source of income.
Medium’s community is better than most
I’ve already mentioned this, but it’s worth saying again: the community on Medium is da bomb.
Everyone who’s here is here to read. Sure, there are some bad apples in the bushel, but they’re few and far between.
The vast majority of Medium members are kind, encouraging and genuinely interested in supporting one another.
That’s uncommon in the age of social media.
Spammers and spambots exist
But of course, there are still plenty of spammers out there.
I’ll get the occasional automated response to a recently-published piece, or sometimes in reply to one of my comments. It’s weird and annoying, but pretty standard for the internet.
Here’s a quick story about one such occasion.
Hopefully the powers that be in Medium’s top secret control room surrounded by lasers at the North Pole can crack down on the bots soon enough.
Shortform can do just as well as longform
I spent most of August toying with shortform content, both on Medium and Twitter/X.
13 out of the 21 articles I wrote were 2-minute reads (or under).
And guess what? I earned over three times as much in August as I did in July.
Again, I’m pretty sure Medium’s new algorithm had thrown everything out of whack for a few weeks, so it probably wasn’t an accurate picture of how things will be in future.
But it was intriguing to see shortform articles outperform their longform counterparts.
Pinned stories get the most traction
Finally, an obvious point: stories pinned to the top of your home feed get the most reads.
These are my current pinned articles:
As you can see, they’re just explanation pieces introducing me and my very small publication to new readers.
But because they’re right at the top of the list, they consistently get the most reads and draw the highest earnings.
I’ll experiment with which pinned pieces perform best in the coming months.
TL;DR
So to sum up, here’s what I’ve learned after 3.5 months and 103 articles on Medium:
- If you want to grow, you have to engage
- AI is lame, don’t use it
- Headlines are crucial
- Feature images showing humans with human emotions are key
- Choose publications wisely
- Earnings are janky
- The Medium community is awesome
- The spammers are out there
- Shortform can do just as well as longform (if not better)
- Pinned stories earn the most
There you have it!
I’ll check back in when I reach my next milestone, which will either be 6 months or 200 articles on Medium.
Until then!
How long have you been writing on Medium for, and what have you learned so far?
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